GREENFIELD — With funding secured and fiber engineering nearly complete, the town-owned service that will eventually provide low-cost internet, telephone and possibly television services to all residents and businesses in town — has officially launched.
But it will still be up to a year before the Greenfield Community Energy and Technology service will be available throughout the town.
Town telecommunications officials said residents will likely be able to sign up for home and mobile wireless internet plans beginning Sept. 1, depending on the availability of fiber. The town recently placed an initial order for 75 miles of fiber, but Daniel Kelley, general manager of the town internet service, said he’s expecting it to take some time to arrive.
“Nobody has it in stock, so we’re looking at a four-month minimum delay,” Kelley said. “The build-out schedule is going to be driven by the availability of the fiber.”
However, he said all 75 miles aren’t required to begin construction, so it can be installed in increments as it arrives.
“Our first goal is to run fiber down Main Street,” he said.
Wireless access points will be installed on utility poles throughout town, and Kelley said surveying for that portion of the project has been completed. GCET has also selected Ruckus Wireless as its wireless vendor, and is working with the California-based company to install new outdoor access points that the town has been beta testing over the past four months.
“The technology itself is a superior technology to the prior vendors that we have been testing,” Kelley said. “They’re (also) publicly traded, and what that means to me is that they have a very strong support infrastructure, both pre-sales and post-sales, and they’ve demonstrated that repeatedly over the past four months.”
Juniper Networks, another California-based company, will supply the network equipment for the service, which Kelley described as “the brains” of the system. This includes switches, routers and other distribution equipment, which will be housed in Town Hall.
“These folks are very, very strong in the telecommunications space,” he said. “They’re very proactive in working with us and they have a depth of resources that no other vendor has.”
Along with the initial fiber installation on Main Street, Kelley said the service will be deploying the Ruckus access points along Main and High streets to replace the equipment that’s there now, and will continue to build out the rest of the town from there.
Since October 2015, the town has been piloting a free Wi-Fi program called GreenLight on Main Street, from Elm Street to High Street and up High Street to the police station. Kelley said that will continue to be available until around Sept. 1, when the town launches its paid plans.
Those who opt for home service, projected to cost $29.99 per month, will receive a wireless receiver and an in-home wireless access point. It will offer customizable speeds from 25 megabits per second up to gigabit speeds.
The low-end, low-speed, entry-level service will be $9.95 per device per month for wireless internet access anywhere in town. While it has been described as called a “mobile plan,” the service will likely be more useful for home use by those with little money but a desire for internet on at least one device in their homes.
This entry-level service would allow specific Wi-Fi-enabled devices, whether a desktop or a smartphone, to draw on the town’s wireless signal directly.
Plans will most likely be month-to-month, meaning residents will not have to sign a contract, and the town will also offer telephone service through Voice over Internet Protocol, which allows subscribers to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of an analog phone line.
“We’re also negotiating an IT television solution, so we can get rid of cable,” Kelley said.
Within six months, the municipal service will grow to an 18-person operation composed of technology experts, customer service representatives, maintenance and repair employees, sales people and more. Kelley said as soon as GCET sets up its bank accounts, which it’s in the process of doing, he can start advertising the positions. He said the first person he plans to hire will be the director of accounting and finance.
“We know where the fiber is going to go, we know where the access points are going to go, we then need to make some strategic decisions on which way we want to launch the business,” he said.
The Greenfield Community Energy and Technology service is currently leasing a temporary office space at 278 Main St., next to the downtown Greenfield Community College building, and plans to move its headquarters into to a leased space in the TD Bank building by September.
Mayor William Martin recently appointed Kelley, president of Kelley Management Group Inc. in Wilbraham, as general manager of the service. He previously served as the town’s consultant for the project, and is joined by William St. Denis of Greenfield’s Information Technology department, who is taking on the role of the service’s director of telecommunications technology. Kelley said Town Council is scheduled to approve his employment contract Wednesday, and if all goes as planned then he will shut down Kelley Management Group Inc. and take on the position full-time.
You can reach Aviva Luttrell at: aluttrell@recorder.com
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